Ryanair Cash Passport (again)

[Bongtrees]

I am treating/paying for 4 family members to come to Spain and dont understand the Ryanair Cash Passport conditions.

The cost of the flights is around £400 so do I have to deposit £550 on to the card?

Can I use the £150 in the shops after I have purchased the tickets?

Also before I do it can anyone confirm that its ok for the card to be in my name and the flights not?

TIA

[ashtondav]

Your card needs to have the cost of the flights on it as credit. No more, no less. So if flights are £400 you top up to a credit balance of £400 (maybe a bit more to allow for price changes).

I think reference to £150 is because you have to load it with that to begin with. Minimum future top ups are £100. You do not need a balance of £550 to buy flights worth £400.

Yes you can spend the balance in shops. Read the T&C for charges. From memory this is 50p a transaction in the UK and more if used abroad. I

I would only use this card for ryanair flights and only use it in a shop (if taking no flights) once every 6 months to avoid the low usage charge.

You can book the flights in any names you want. You do not have to be flying yourself.

Top up is instant when topping up by debit card.

[Campo Steve]

My daughter now has her cash passport. Good to hear that it can be used to buy my flights as well. However, it will be slightly complicated topping up the card to pay for my flights. I will have to transfer the money to her for her to top up as it can only be topped up from accounts with the same name as the passport holder. According to the T&C's, any transfer from an account with another name will be returned to the bank. A bit of a pain.

[White Horse]

I'm not eligible, so I'll just keep paying €6 per booking.
Spanish residents can't have one, or that's how I understood it.

[Campo Steve]

At the moment it is just UK, Ireland Italy and Germany. Slowly being rolled out across Europe so presumably will get to Spain eventually. If living in Spain it is prepaid Mastercard.

[Campo Steve]

Applied for my Spanish Ryanair Cash Passport last night.

One question. It states that I will have to send them, within 3 days, scans of confirmation of my ID, but it doesn't tell me how to send it. Will I receive an email telling me how to do it, have they missed that bit off the information or did I just miss it?

[Campo Steve]

Looks like that one didn't go through. Tried again last night but this time it did fail at the bank transfer stage. Said it couldn't process the transfer. Don't know why, plenty in the bank.

Interesting that in Spain they only want to charge €7 for the card, whereas in UK it is £6 plus a minimum transfer into it of £150. No minimum initial transfer mentioned for the Spanish one.

Anybody successfully got a Spanish one?

On another point, although I speak enough Spanish to manage the application in Spanish (I think), I would suggest they have missed a trick by not allowing the Spanish card application to be in English. There must be loads of Brits that want a Spanish one yet balk at the thought of the translation.

[alisonb]

I've just tried to get the Spanish version, but when I got to the end a Cajamar (my bank) pop up appeared, asking for my PIN. I assumed that was the same one as I use at the cash machine, but the purchase then failed. I had a quick look at the terms and conditions, and the charges I noticed, as well as buying the card for 7 euros were 3 euros for reloading and I the minimum load has to be 175 euros. Has anyone tried buying one with a Cajamar card? Or indeed any other Spanish card.

[alisonb]

I've now tried 3 times to order the cash passport, bank says there is no problem, as 7 euros was withheld, but has now been released (ie not taken). So tried to ring phone number provided for queries. It says it won't take calls. So has anyone actually got through the Spanish process?

[White Horse]

So has anyone actually got through the Spanish process?

No, life's too short.

[alisonb]

I'm a woman on a mission. I've now written a complaint to the head office, asking for my 12 euros back for a recent booking, plus paper forms to complete to get one of these things.

[White Horse]

I'm a woman on a mission.

Go for it!
Michael O'Leary - be afraid, be very afraid.

[alisonb]

Update so far.
Ryanair, as requested, emailed a reply (from 'refund@ryanair.com, which looks vaguely promising). The attached letter stated that the cash passport is only available to residents of UK and Ireland, and for other countries, prepaid mastercard is free (my letter stated I had been charged 12 euros using a prepaid mastercard for return Spain UK flights).
She then asked me for my cash passport number, since I had been unable to book with it - despite my letter clearly setting out that I had been unable to buy the passport.
Ryanair really need to employ better speed readers. I have written again (not convinced the email address will accept incoming mail) reiterating the problems, and requesting 24 euros refund, since I've had to book another flight.
I'm not going away Mr O'Leary, even if this becomes my retirement hobby

[Campo Steve]

I'm still unable to get a Spanish cash passport.

First email to them was replied to by them asking me to phone them with my cash passport number.

Emailed again, reply very similar, asking me to phone them.

Emailed again. This time they acknowledged I don't yet have a card and sent me an application form to fill in, scan and send to them.

Unfortunately it was an application form for the UK version.

Emailed again. Reply... They don't have a manual form for the Spanish version. Phone them.

At least now they say I can email them my phone number and can arrange a time for them to call me. As I have mobile phone only I will investigate further as I am worried I could still end up paying for the call.

Incidentally, the cash passport is operated by cashpassport.com, not Ryanair themselves.

In the meantime I have just booked a flight with my daughters UK cash passport. As it is a UK one exchange rates become involved. I reckon I lost about 7 euros that way but that is still better than 6 per person per flight.

[alisonb]

Steve - if it's Access Worldwide who are going to phone, don't worry, They phoned me on a mobile and were very helpful. They are nothing to do with Ryanair, other than being the card provider. Have you tried the Spanish freephone number given when you go through the application? It refused to take my call - I wonder if it's because it's a mobile, as it goes through to UK and they pay for the call. It's an 0900 number, so is free from a mobile. Which bank are you with?

[alisonb]

Well, now I'm rich. Ryanair have refunded 12 euros admin fee. The letter is still way off the mark and she either hasn't read my letter or has deliberately been evasive. The staff are obviously only able to deal with the UK version. But I'm not finished yet. Watch this space

[Campo Steve]

Thanks Alison. Yes, it is Access Worldwide. I'll ring them. Thanks.

Tried it with two banks. Cajamar and La Caixa. Both say there is no problem. Cash Passport says otherwise. I'll ring and see what they say.

[alisonb]

Final update - now I've had the "get lost" letter. After two letters telling me it's possible to use prepaid Mastercard from Spain without any charges, it wasn't until I sent them a screenshot showing that's not right that they agreed that it's not.

I've now got a UK version. Unlike the Spanish version, there's no request for scanned ID. They just post it out.